Assignment: Build Something - Score Board

Repository

The code can be found at https://github.com/joh-dah/ScoreBoard

SetUp

• Start the minikube tunnel with minikube start and minikube tunnel
• Start the application with kubectl apply -f kustomize.yaml
• Access application via http://10.107.57.82/

CleanUp

• Run kubectl delete --cascade=foreground -f kustomize.yaml

Description of the Software

I built a simple scoreboard to track the scores of e.g. volleyball or table tennis matches. On the starting page, you see a list of all previous games. A new game can be created with the "New Game" button.

You get redirected to a page where you can track the score of the game and afterwards return to the start page.

Software Architecture and Design

The Application consists of three microservices. The frontend, the backend and the database.

Frontend Microservice

• Responsibility: Provides a user interface for users to interact with the scoreboard.
• Technology: Vue.js
• API: Exposes REST endpoints to communicate with the backend.

Backend Microservice

• Responsibility: Manages game entries, updates the database, and serves requested information to the frontend.
• Technology: Flask (Python)
• API: Exposes REST endpoints to communicate with the frontend. Utilizes environment variables for database connection.

Database Microservice (MongoDB)

• Responsibility: Stores game data persistently.
• Technology: MongoDB
• Storage: Utilizes persistent storage for data that survives infrastructure restarts.

Architecture Principles and Patterns

• Microservices: Each component (Frontend, Backend, Database) is a separate microservice, enabling independent scalability.
• RESTful API: Communication between microservices follows REST principles.
• ConfigMap: Configurations are managed using Kubernetes ConfigMap for decoupling.

Benefits and Challenges

Benefits:

• Scalability: Microservices allow independent horizontal scaling of components.
• Decoupling: Components are loosely coupled, facilitating independent development and maintenance.
• Resilience: Persistence of MongoDB ensures data survival across infrastructure restarts.

Challenges:

• Complexity: Managing multiple microservices introduces complexity in deployment and monitoring. Espacially for a simple application like this one the three microservices are a lot of unnecessary overhead.

Security Considerations

Ensuring secure communication between microservices is crucial. The complex architecture introduces avoidable security risks.

• Secure Communication: Use HTTPS and secure ports for communication between microservices.
• Access Controls: Implement proper access controls for database interactions.

Mitigation Strategies

• Automation: Implement CI/CD pipelines for automated deployment and updates.
• Monitoring: Employ Kubernetes monitoring tools for tracking and analyzing microservice behavior.
• Regular Audits: Conduct regular security audits to identify and address vulnerabilities.